


The Disappearance of the Chicken

by mairelon



Category: The Chicken Doesn't Skate - Gordon Korman
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 18:19:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15802029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mairelon/pseuds/mairelon
Summary: Henrietta goes missing again.





	The Disappearance of the Chicken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hhertzof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/gifts).



Downloaded from the Hard Disk of Zachary Gustafson

 

    Scene Seven

    Deep in the Jungles of Africa

    [Exterior shot: Monkeys swing from vines – day]

    EXPLORER #1

    Let's set up our camp here. Hang on, what's this?

    [Close up: A pile of dead monkeys and other jungle animals]

    EXPLORER #2

    What could have killed all these animals?

    EXPLORER #3 screams

    A giant fifteen-feet high mosquito lands on his back and sucks all the blood out of his body. His corpse lands on top of a dead cheetah.

 

Was it cheetahs or was it jaguars that lived in jungles? Oh well, I'll ask Milo later.

Speaking of whom, it was time to head over to Milo's house. His mom had invited over me for dinner.

“Zachary,” Mrs. Neal greeted me when I arrived. “I hope you like lentil soup.”

“Absolutely,” I said.

Milo's welcome was a lot less enthusiastic. “I told you my mom was going on a vegan diet and you shouldn't come over,” he hissed when Mrs. Neal's back was turned.

“No worries, man. I got your back. What are best friends for but to help each other eat disgusting dinners?”

Milo only response was a groan.

Over a dinner of kale salad and lentil soup, Mrs. Neal asked me about how was seventh grade and being on the hockey team.

“Seventh grade is about the same as sixth grade,” I said. “Hockey is going great. I didn’t sign up for the team until the last minute to drive Adam crazy. He nearly had a panic attack when I told him that I would rather concentrate on my writing. We’ve won our first two games of the season.”

I gave Mrs. Neal a play-by-play description of our first two games.

Towards the end of the meal, there came a frantic knocking at the front door. Mrs. Neal had barely stood up from the table when Adam Lurie burst through the door.

Milo treated Adam to his worm guts look. “Why are you letting yourself into my house like you live here?”

“Henrietta is missing!” said Adam. “You need to help us look for her.”

 

“Psychology Talk”

By Kelly Marie Ginsberg

 

I always make it a point to visit Henrietta in Mrs. Baggio's classroom after school everyday before I headed home. Oftentimes, there's usually a dozen or so students hanging out with Henrietta.

Today, I was helping the rest of the student council set up the gym for the open house tomorrow night, so it was about 5:00 by the time I got to Mrs. Baggio's classroom. All of Henrietta's fans had left for the day. The classroom was empty, but I didn't realize how empty until I looked in Henrietta's pen and realized that she wasn't there. No one was scheduled to take her home since today was only Wednesday.

I used the phone on Mrs. Baggio’s desk to call 911. There was no call for the 911 operator to hang up on me when I reported Henrietta missing, even if this was the seventh time this year that one of us had called 911 about Henrietta.

I dashed down the hallways looking for help, but the whole school was deserted. Even the student council members had all left.

I remembered that there was a hockey practice this afternoon, so I ran over to the Community Center.

I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly. “Henrietta is missing!” I shouted when everyone stopped and looked over at me.

Pandemonium broke out on the rink. Coach Crenshaw tried to restore order but couldn't make himself heard over the shouting.

“What is she gets hurt?” asked Brendan. “Or run over by a truck?”

“We have our game tomorrow against the Kings! We need Henrietta there!" 

That contribution was from Adam. No suprise that his first thought was about hockey.

"Let's split up into teams and search the town for her," I said. I took charge and divided the hockey team into pairs and assigned them an area of town to cover.

"And finally, Adam and Zachary can cover the area between the park and Elm St."

"Gustafson's not here," snorted Coach Crenshaw. "He's only showed up to half of our practices this whole season."

"Zachary doesn't need the practice," Brendan piped up. "He hasn't let a goal in all season."

"That doesn't matter," said Coach Crenshaw. "If he's on the team, he needs to practice with the rest of you."

"Stop talking about hockey!" I screamed. "Only Henrietta matters today. Stop talking and go search for her."

The hockey rink rapidly emptied and only a stray Gatorade bottle was left to show the team's previous presense.

 

Rangers Update:

Captain Adam Lurie Reporting

 

Mrs. Neal made Milo come with Zachary and me to look for Henrietta. He trudged along behind us bundled up as if it was December instead of October.

While I called Henrietta's name, Zachary and Milo half-heartedly peered behind bushes and trees. The sun was about to set. I had probably spent too much time tracking Zachary down, first going to his house and then to Milo's house when Mrs. Gustafson told me he was eating dinner with Milo. But come on, if Zack was going to miss practice, the least he could do was spending his evening helping look for a chicken.

"How are we going to find a chicken like this?" whined Zachary. "Or what if one of the other teams found her already and we're wasting our time?"

"Do you want to tell Kelly Marie that we didn't search all the streets that she assigned us?"

Zachary winced.

"I thought so."

"It'll be dark soon," said Milo. "Why don't we stop for the night and continue tomorrow?"

"No! The game with the Kings is tomorrow! We need to find Henrietta by then."

Milo sighed but didn't say anything further.

We finished our search sector about twenty minutes later and headed to the community center. We were the last group to make it back. The rest of the team slouched around on the bleachers along with Sheila Martin and a couple dozen other chicken fanatics. It was clear that no one had had any luck with the search.

A frazzled Kelly Marie was hunched over a large fold-out map of the town making notes as I reported in.

Milo peered over Kelly Marie's shoulder at the map. "That is an adequate attempt at performing a methodical search for the – for Henrietta. However, why don't we establish who was the last person to see the – see Henrietta today."

"She wasn't in her pen in Mrs. Baggio's room when I went in at 5:00," said Kelly Marie.

"I was leaving Mrs. Clent's room around 4:30 and I saw a couple of hockey players going into Mrs. Baggio's room then," said Milo.

"That can't be," said Brendan. "Everyone was at hockey practice this afternoon."

My stomach turned over. "Everyone except Zack."

All eyes turned to Zachary.

 

Experiment Notes: Milo Neal

10/14/97

 

"It wasn't me," yelped ZG. "I was at home all afternoon working on a new screenplay. I can show it to you."

I never thought I would find myself defending ZG from an angry mob of students and hockey players.

"It wasn't Zachary," I said. "It was some hockey player with red hair. And the other guy was tall and heavily built. I don't know either of their names."

"No one on the team has red hair," said AL.

"Are you sure?" I asked looking around at all the hockey players. True, none of them were the two guys I saw this afternoon. "He was carrying a blue duffel bag with a pair of skates sticking out."

"Everyone on the team has a red duffel bag," said BW.

We all looked at each other in puzzlement.

"You know who carries blue bags?" asked AL suddenly. "Everyone on the North Middle School athletic teams. And Gavin Gunhold, their hockey captain, has red hair. Isn't it obvious? He kidnapped Henrietta because we have a game against them tomorrow afternoon! They know they have no chance against us otherwise."

I blinked at this "obvious" conclusion. Stealing a chicken to influence the outcome of a hockey game? However, I had long observed that logic is not most hockey players' strong point.

"What are we waiting for?" asked KMG. "Let's go rescue Henrietta!"

Half an hour later I found myself crouched behind some bushes in front of Gavin Gunhold's house with KMG and a few dozen other students. Luckily, there was only one Gunhold in the telephone book.

"There's a shed in the back yard," whispered ZG. "That would be a good place to hide a chicken."

"I'll go check it out," whispered KMG. She stood up and slinked around the side of the property towards the shed in the back. She was pretty good at sneaking quietly. Unfortunately, AL and the rest of the team followed her and they were a lot less quiet than KMG.

"Stop," I hissed to ZG and half a dozen others who were the last to get up. "We can't all go. We'll make too much noise." They crouched back down reluctantly.

A minute later, the rescuers came tie-toeing back across the lawn, making even more noise than before. "Let's go," said KMG, clutching the chicken in her arms.

Several block away, we stopped to catch our breath, once we were sure no one was following us.

"I'll take Henrietta home for tonight," said KMG. "And bring her to school tomorrow."

"We should have bodyguards to transport Henrietta from the school to the rink and to guard her during the game tomorrow," suggested ZG. AL agreed to make arrangements with the basketball team to provide bodyguard duties and we split up to go home.

Even though I found hockey boring and incomprehensible, I thought I might go to tomorrow's game to see the North Middle School's team's reaction upon seeing Henrietta's presence at the game.

 

 


End file.
